WHY BABIES CRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1939, Page 8

WHY BABIES CRY

SOMETHING IS WRONG. TOO MUCH HANDLING CAUSES TIREDNESS. When a baby cries it is a sign that something is wrong: and, as babies lead very simple lives when compared with older people, there are not very many things that can be wrong; so that the field to be covered in search of a cause is not a large one. A very young baby, up to the age of six to eight weeks, cries for physical reasons only. It is practically certain that he does not think, so that emotion as a, cause for crying need not be considered; he will not cry to express anger grief, failure, or guilt, as an older child may do. but to draw attention to pain or i discomfort, so that it may be rectified.

Hunger and thirst will make a baby cry; but the discomfort that follows on too much food probably feels very much the same to baby as the promptings of hunger; so that the fact that a crying baby readily accepts food, and is for a while pacified by it, does not necessarily mean that he is hungry. If hunger is real, he will drink and be at peace for hours, but if food is given, as it so often is, when indigestion is the real cause of discomfort, it will not be very long before the complaint is renewed and often redoubled. Nowadays a baby’s needs in the way of food are fairly well known to most mothers, and crying from too much or too little food is far fess common than it was a generation ago. Sometimes food appears to give a baby acute pain of a colicky nature, commonly known as “wind in the stomach," 'but actually caused by wind in the bowel. Immediately or shortly after food, a baby so affected will cry suddenly and loudly and draw up his legs. After a while the pain disappears, and crying stops, but often both will recur several times for an hour or so. This condition is due to drinking either too much or too quickly, and the remedy lies in reducing the quantity or the speed of feeds.

There are cases when the quality of the food is at fault, and it is quite reasonable to believe that fatigue or worry or injudicious diet in the mother can cause chemical changes in her milk that bring about painful upsets in her baby’s digestive tract. Excessive heat or cold naturally give discomfort and cause crying. These should be easy both to discover and to correct. TIRING FOR SMALL PEOPLE. Many mothers do not fully realise how far fatigue is a factor in a baby’s discomfort, and therefore a cause of crying. Yet it should be easy to understand how too muclj handling in the way of being fondled and played with by a number of large people can give so small a thing a great deal of muscular tiredness and discomfort, also that a faulty position in a cot can make a small limb ache and a small voice be raised in righteous protest. Fresh air is more comfortable than close; low. calm voices more restful than loud and anxious ones, and firm, sure handling more soothing than timorous or careless manipulation.

A baby need cry very little. If he be well fed, well clad, well washed', and well dried, and left to enjoy the fruits of these in peace, he will generally give peace in return. And if, as well, he be well aired and approached by pleasant and orderly sounds, sights, smells and touches, well, what more could a little baby want?